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by rain pitter-patters
Summary: Blaine is looking up videos of Kurt and stumbles across New Directions' sectionals performance. Things happen from there...


_Hello! This is my first Glee fanfiction… and it's basically my first fanfiction period. I say basically because the plot on my last one fell apart and I never ended up posting it. With that in mind, I'm going to keep things simple. I'm going to have a few oneshots and a couple stories with only a couple chapters before I jump into a large multi-chapter story. _

_Summary: Blaine is looking at videos of Kurt and stumbles across New Directions' sectionals performance. I know this sort of thing has been done before and hope I've made it interesting. Sorry if the details aren't perfect: I enjoy watching Glee, but I've only seen each episode once._

_If something is italicized in quotations, it's the song playing from Blaine's computer (the song is Don't Rain on my Parade). _

_Disclamer: me? Own Glee? You seem to have the wrong person. (I also do not own Don't Rain on my Parade)_

_Sorry for the long Author's Note. _

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If someone were to challenge Blaine about what he was doing, he would surely profess innocence. He was _not_ looking up videos of a certain boy he seemed to have a more-than-slight crush on. Neither was he spying on the competition, New Directions—that wouldn't be very sporting of him. No, he would probably say he was merely looking at a couple videos Kurt had sent him. The best lies are short, simple, and to the point.

Of course, he _was_ looking up videos of Kurt and by extension, New Directions as well.

"_Don't tell me not to live, just sit and putter. Life's candy and the sun's a ball of butter,_" Blaine's eyebrows shot up. This was a peculiar song choice, and why was one small girl—admittedly one small girl with what already seemed to be a spectacular voice—singing it all alone? The Warblers would never do a song such as this, and they would never have a member walk in from the back, working the crowd on the way.

"_If someone takes a spill, it's me and not you!_" Privately, Blaine wasn't sure the Warblers could manage this performance. He stared at the screen, transfixed, until the end of the song. His state of astonishment continued as New Directions enthusiastically danced and sang theatrically through the remainder of their time onstage. Each member looked in their element, and though they were acting as a team, one could picture them as individuals. With the Warblers, very few hints of personality leaked through. They were one being when they performed. It was their greatest strength, but their greatest weakness as well. They couldn't keep up the façade and show emotion, so they barely showed emotion at all. When he stopped to consider that, he realized their method of singing wasn't quite singing at all: what is a song when it is flat (emotionally) and heartless? Goodness Gracious… no wonder Kurt had auditioned with that stunning song from Evita. It had been completely wrong for the Warblers, but Blaine would bet that if Kurt had been with New Directions, he would've gotten the part.

Some of the Warblers thought Kurt had been showing off with his performance. His clear individuality had been an insult to them, because it implied he didn't want to be part of the group.

Blaine smiled. He had a marvelous idea. It would work perfectly, provided Kurt didn't kill him.

* * *

Blaine strolled into the common room, where he knew the majority of the Warblers would be relaxing or studying. Sure enough, Wes and David (the two were inseparable) and over half of the group were scattered about the room. Because Dalton was inhabited by only boys (and rich ones at that), they had huge surpluses of technology, most of which ended up in public areas such as this. It had five rather new computers and two large flat screen TVs. Blaine got the video up on the computer screen, paused it, and hooked the computer up to one of the TVs. "Hey guys! Come check this out," he called over his shoulder.

"Spying, Blaine?" asked David.

Unfortunately, Blaine's plan had one major flaw. In order for Kurt to no longer seem arrogant to the group, he couldn't pretend Kurt had shown him the video. At least Wes and David weren't mentioning their suspicions as to how Blaine found the video. He was lucky they weren't smirking and telling him to get a move on, or stop fawning over Kurt's every move. Recognizing his limited options, he replied "Just checking out the competition. I thought you would like to see this," and pressed play.

Initially, the assorted Warblers merely glance at the TV as the curtains open and the brunette steps forward. Within the first three lines of the song however, the girl on the video has each present member's full attention. Those that had been watching from the start would say the petite girl had simply burst from the curtains and into the song. The rest held the same level of astonishment. It was so… different. It wasn't full of harmonies and it didn't have dancing. It had something more than their tight choreography and their constrained (though impressive and beautiful) music. What could the Warblers do if they put this energy into their own music? The girl had breathed life into the song. Maybe there was desperation beneath her beautiful notes, because the urgency she displayed seemed further than the boundaries of an average person's acting abilities. It didn't matter. If she truly was desperate, her singing was even more impressive. Not many can overcome nerves with her apparent ease.

Eyes widened with "_I'm gonna live and live now! Get what I want, I know how!_" and as the rest of the group walked proudly to the stage, they widened further.

* * *

Kurt frowned at his history textbook. He had nothing _against _history and appreciated its value. At the same time, however… it was extremely dull. He simultaneously fervently wished for a distraction and firmly reminded himself that he needed to study.

His room was one of the farthest from the common room in his dorm, which happened to be the dorm with the bulk of the Warblers. At times like this, it was a welcome distance because he couldn't hear all the noise other residents complained about. After nearly ten minutes of a wavering concentration, his determination failed. The test would be easy. Why not let himself get a 90 or 95 instead of having a good chance for a 100?

Venturing towards the common room, he froze as whispers of what must be music playing quite loud reached him "…_And if I'm fanned out, your turn at bat, sir, At least I didn't fake it, hat, sir._"

Perhaps… perhaps it was a different singer. Really. He was rather self-centered to assume it was their sectionals performance. It was highly unlikely. He resumed walking, while attempting to convince himself that he did not hear Rachel Berry. It wasn't working.

Unfortunately, as he heard the close of the song he could no longer deny it. Rachel's voice called to him across the decreasing distance, "_I simply gotta march, my heart's a drummer! Nobody, no, nobody, is gonna rain on my parade!_"

Hearing the song filled him with a wistful longing for his friends, but he pushed it aside for the time being. Right now, he needed to pinpoint the source. He had a sickening feeling that a bunch of the Warblers were watching the video. What would they think of it?

Taking a moment for a couple deep, calming breaths—he fervently hoped they wouldn't criticize his beloved group—he managed to get himself under control. Well, his face was under control… his legs were not. He found himself running without knowing how or when he started doing so.

When he reached the room, he found numerous Warblers staring at a far too large television screen, watching New Directions sing "You Can't Always Get What You Want." They seemed to be halfway through. Horrifying. This was horrifying. In his distress, Kurt failed to notice that every person in the room looked quite impressed. He saw only their surprise, and he imagined it must be surprised disgust.

"Guys?" he asked timidly. The single word didn't exactly make its way out very well. It was quiet enough that he wasn't altogether surprised not one boy responded. "Guys?" he tried again. It emerged at normal volume. Not one boy turned.

"Hello?" he spoke loudly over the music. He kept trying, but he didn't succeed in getting their attention until the performance ended.

Nearly as one, the boys jerked around and stared at Kurt. They weren't sure if they should be guilty for spying or not.

A few moments passed of uncomfortable silence passed until Wes broke it with "I can't believe you guys did that Kurt!"

Blaine (nervously?) indicated a seat next to him for Kurt, who followed his direction in a slight daze. Responding to a prodding look from Blaine, Kurt managed to mumble, "Yeah, I always wished that we could've really blown the judges away. We still had a wonderful time anyway…"

Incredulous looks were shot across the room. Confused, David asked "What do you mean Kurt?"

"Well I guess you don't know the story… not sure why you would. The cheerleading coach of my school, Sue Silvester, really had it out for us last year. She campaigned to get our club canceled. When she couldn't, she managed to get the Principal to agree our funding would be lost if we didn't win Sectionals." A few angry gasps were made at this. Kurt continued without seeming to notice, "Then she leaked our set list to the two opposing teams. We were going to perform three songs: one group took two of them and the other took one. Including some of our choreography. We didn't know until they performed, both of them right before us."

A chorus of questions hit all at once, making it impossible to know who asked what. Luckily, the questions basically all asked the same thing: "And then you went and did _that_? You pulled that off?"

Kurt could be astoundingly oblivious when he put his mind to it. He didn't notice the admiration in their voices. "Well," he said nervously, "we didn't have any time to rehearse it or anything. Mercedes was supposed to sing the ballad, but she can't belt it but on the fly like Rachel can. We would've done better if we could've performed our original songs, but all of us were astounded at what we managed to put together so quickly. And besides—"

A sharp jab in his side jerked Kurt to attention, ending his ramble. He looked at Blaine accusingly, who responded by gesturing towards the faces of his fellow Warblers. He looked, and saw… respect. And astonishment. They were… oh. _Oh_. They were impressed with him after all.

_Well, that was quite a blunder_, he thought. _Maybe besides displaying stupidity, it'll show that I am not some arrogant self-centered jerk?_ He didn't notice his own smile, because he then proceeded to become lost in his thoughts.

. . . . . . . . .

Witnessing Kurt's dazed smile, Blaine thought his friend might not be capable of carrying out a fully coherent conversation at the moment. He changed the subject far away from Kurt, and bumped his shoulder to Kurt's in response to Kurt's silent thanks.

* * *

_So that's that : ) I hope you like it! I would really appreciate reviews and I welcome suggestions and constructive criticism (but please, no flames).I am currently considering this complete. _

_(oh, and if you haven't read CP Coulter's _Dalton_ story, I highly recommend it). _

_Hope you've enjoyed the holidays! _


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